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Keyboard Magazine Interviews Coy Bowles & Clay Cook

"How do you keep improving as keyboard players at home and on the road?

Clay: Our schedule on the road is busy. We’re usually up early, and there are workouts and the “eat and greet” events with fans before the show. Sometimes we’ll do jams at sound check before a show, and that’s when I’ll get some Hammond playing in. When I have a three-day run at home. I’ll usually focus on guitar one afternoon and piano for part of another. It helps me to “play what you already know.” I’m always trying to play and sing whatever AM Gold ’70s songs I feel like—focusing on the voicings, the tension. The songs are mostly jazz-ish, but not jazz. There’s a piano at the house, so I’ll pick things out in difficult keys. This works well because Zac tunes down a half-step—so the songs are in keys like F#, Db, B, Eb and Ab, instead of G, D, C, E, and A.

Coy: The transposing saves Zac’s voice. He’s done this for years. Clay and I don’t transpose artificially; we play the songs in the tuned-down key. Learning songs in keys like Gb, Eb, and others actually helps me dream up new scales and melodies."